PLOT
This claustrophobic picture (aka L’Apollonide Souvenirs de la maison close) is a frank, unexploitative account of life in a smart Parisian brothel in 1899
and 1900. It demonstrates that la belle époque was less belle for the
girls than for their wealthy clients, though better than walking the
streets or working in a
sweatshop. The film is superbly designed to suggest the oppressive,
hypocritical haut-bourgeois decor, the obsessive eroticism that excludes
real desire, and the languorous timelessness that makes one day like
another. There is enough detail about money, cosmetics, hygiene,
sexually transmitted diseases,
theatrical deportment and authentic camaraderie to qualify the film as a
kind of documentary. But a final coda offering a glimpse of whores in
present-day Paris, waiting in the streets for passing motorists to pick
them up, shows that plus ça change, plus c’est le même commerce. The
movie’s most startling image is of an abused, once beautiful prostitute
who imagines her client’s sperm turning into tears and flowing from her
eyes
SCREEN
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